So what is going to happen now. Well, the National Guard, prior to the GWOT, was known for riot control and for battling floods. They were more of a domestic force which was trained for a federal mission but really hadn’t been used in that way until the GWOT. Sure, they deployed but let’s be honest, most Guard members weren’t really expecting year-long deployments to a war zone when they signed up.

So what are things going to be like? Well, from a former Journal Star newsie who made good:

National Guard ordering Schnucks near riot area to remove all perishable items #Ferguson

Here’s a 2012 video from the Ohio National Guard which was doing riot control training.

[youtube=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGAlwcL6Ox8″]

The National Guard has military police units on the Army side and Security Forces units on the Air Force side which are trained in police and security tactics. The issues are going to be this:

the look isn’t going to change much given that the local cops were already outfitted in tactical gear but there is a different between the Military and the police.

will the rioters and the ones who are causing trouble (not the ones peacefully protesting) have the moxie to throw things or to fight back against real soldiers.

And can the bitterness being assuaged in the community after the military comes out. That’s sort of the final straw sort of thing.

It is important to know that rioting in LA back in 1992 stopped when the National Guard was deployed. But stopping the looting and the rioting and making good with the residents are two different things.

And this again raises the question, do we need to arm our police to the teeth. We all remember the 1997 North Hollywood bank robbery where two men in body armor and automatic weapons held off cops for nearly an hour. The cops were outgunned and had to get high-powered rifles from a nearby gun store as their own weapons were ineffective. That sparked the hue and cry of officers saying they needed more and more. The 1033 program which I wrote about over the weekend, had been around for a few years but got really good then.

And the ongoing GWOT and well, you have a lot of surplus. The Feds don’t want to keep all those MRAPs around and pay to maintain them at some bone yard. So they sell them off at a loss to local police departments, figuring the cost savings alone are worth it.

In Peoria, local cops point to a hostage situation just north of Downtown where they used a Bearcat, an armored car, to get officers up close. The guy inside was armed and in theory, his bullets could pierce the side of a squad car. Sheriff’s Deputies have AR-15s in their cars. The city has a SWAT team which gets called out every so often.

Author: Andy Kravetz

Andy Kravetz has spent most of the past 16 years covering the area's legal system as well as the military. in that time, he's crawled in the mud, flown in transport planes, and written about a man prosecuted for terrorism. This blog will reflect all those interests and then some.
View all posts by Andy Kravetz

4 thoughts on “So what happens when the National Guard is called into a riot scene?”

Andy: I think your opening title says it all … : So what happens when ….” I think we will see the opening scenario this evening. See what? Ye Gods! I have spent a month’s worth of mega bytes following this story on the net the last week or so. Way past unbelievable. Hacker group Anonymous claiming to have hacked Ferg PPD, and having ALL RADIO TRAFFIC, emails, planning, commentary – EVERYTHING within Ferg PPD. Appears they do. An account from a ‘friend of the shooting officer’ – appears, now, put out with a little polish and spin, and outright inaccurate in places. The account ‘put out’ w/o going to the FBI first. Now the autopsy is out, and it’s not good re previous statements from Ferg PPD. An unfolding disaster on a scale not seen by me EVER-been a ‘newsie’ since the 5th or 6th grade – over 65 now. “So what happens when the National Guard ….”. One thing for sure, lots and lots more mega bytes. A very sobering, and sad situation, still unreeling, mostly out of control.

I would never have thought that this would happen in the STL area, but then again when I think about it it was probably inevitable.

I see three issues at work here only marginally related:

1) The shooting of Michael Brown by the Ferguson police officer. So much conflicting information is dribbling out about it that the only think I’m sure of anymore is that the kid was killed. How or why seems to change with the breeze.

2) The protesters venting against the police in Ferguson is entirely legitimate and probably needs to be heard. The people of the community feel threatened by the very people they pay to protect them, and who do you call to protect you from the police?

3) The looting and violence seems to be criminal types taking advantage of an opportunity and is basically unconnected to the protests by anything other than that opportunity. There is just plain no excuse for what they are doing. I’m hearing from my friends who live in the area that they are more frustrated by the violence and the looting than by the police or the protesters. One friend complained bitterly that the kids can’t even get to school due to the mayhem (I didn’t even know school was in session!). The police are in a no win situation, if they apply force they’re vilified, if they stand by and do nothing they are vilified.

I have no idea what the answer to the looting and the violence is, but more militarization doesn’t seem to be the right direction to go here. You mentioned a few of the successes of deploying the national guard in stopping civil disorder, but I recall an incident from history that I watched unfold at the time at Kent State and it didn’t play out so well. I hope that deploying the national guard in Ferguson doesn’t go down the same road as the deployment of it in Ohio in May of 1970 did.

Gordo: ++ on your comments, especially the last, relating to Ohio, 1970. Kent State, specifically. National Guard on an AMERICAN COLLEGE CAMPUS with LOADED RIFLES (as in a round in the chamber) – College kids protesting the Viet War. Natl Guard (also mostly kids) shoots and KILLS 2 (I think) protesters. All Hell breaks loose on the National/World scene. An extremely dangerous situation unfolding … a bottle pops, someone (anyone) fires a shot … tripod mounted machine gun ‘Roy’, on top of an armoured vehicle ‘opens up’ – everyone, in the confusion, ‘opens up’. Mushroom cloud that can be seen Around the World … ‘opens up’ An extremely dry tinderbox in the works here, waiting for the right spark. Plenty of ‘igniters’ on hand, everywhere on scene.

BTW, watching the net … even CAR AND DRIVER (!) in the mix now … commentary on the mil vehicles being used in Ferg, and ‘from whence they came’, and what they do. Horsepower and all I think, no time to read it right now.